Buyer called out of the blue
Summary: theteamsetguy was surprised to receive a call from a previous buyer and wondered how they obtained their phone number. eoma689485 suggested that personal information might be accessible through a quick online search, while others like whitewaterford mentioned checking eBay settings to control visibility of contact details. mam98031 highlighted that buyer and seller contact information is sometimes available on order forms. The discussion also touched on privacy concerns with online transactions, as shared by sreu3058, who mentioned receiving unsolicited messages from a retailer. Generally, participants provided insights on managing privacy and the implications of direct buyer-seller communications outside official platforms.
I recently had a previous buyer call me out of the blue. I was wondering how they got my number?
broto_64
·1 month agoI believe there are options in your selling settings / preferences to hide / show your personal information, either way I think that would be a good place to start.
christworks
·1 month agoIt takes mere seconds to find just about anybody if you know where and how to look. That's the reality of the world we live in.
Someone suggested you can have your information removed from a site that has it. Maybe. Sometimes those sites respond to such requests. Sometimes they don't. That method is really like playing whack-a-mole, because there are dozens upon dozens of sites. Then, there are public records, property and land records, for example. This doesn't even get into the darkweb stuff.
About a year ago I was talking with a friend of mine and we were talking about this subject. It took about 60 seconds and only using his phone number I was able to tell him every place he ever lived, including the address and a description of the house, going back to the early 70s.
You can set up Google to alert you if your information appears in a search, and you can then ask Google to remove it from their search engine. This does not remove it from the Internet nor from other search engines.
Buyers shouldn't be calling sellers though. If it were me, I'd report them to eBay.
sreu3058
·1 month agoThat’s creepy.
I was browsing/ window shopping on a retail website I’d never purchased from, and they sent me a text! asking me if I wanted a discount on what I was looking at.
I was so affronted at the audacity, I blocked and will never purchase or window shopping from there again.
tools*
·1 month agoYou must not be using an ad blocker. You probably have adware and malware following you wherever you go online.
chapeau-noir
·1 month agoThis is an old gambit and actually has been lessening - I think because most of the buying public found it obnoxious.
whitewaterford
·1 month ago@theteamsetguy I googled this and this is what AI tells me:
To control whether your phone number is displayed on eBay, you must adjust your Buyer Communication settings within your account preferences. [1]
How to Hide or Show Your Phone Number as a Seller
Navigate to the eBay Manage Communications with Buyers page (or go to My eBay > Account Settings > Managing communication with buyers). [1, 2, 3]
Locate the Share your phone number section. [1]
Click Edit. [1]
Choose your preferred level of visibility:
Hide it: Select No to prevent buyers from finding your phone number through eBay help portals.
Show it: Select Yes. You can then choose to display your number Only after a purchase or Both before and after a purchase. [1, 2]
I tried to check mine and I didn't have the "Share your phone number" section. Apparently that only applies to business seller accounts (not personal). I'm guessing you probaby are a business seller.
theteamsetguy
OP1 month ago@whitewaterford ,
Thanks I will give that a try.
inhawaii
·1 month agoI recently had a previous buyer call me out of the blue. I was wondering how they got my number?
Why didn't you ask him?
theteamsetguy
OP1 month ago@inhawaii ,
I didn’t think of it until I hung up. He wanted to buy a bunch of stuff outside of eBay. I told I don’t sell outside of eBay.
mam98031
·1 month agoWell then that is why they called you. You have the answer.
Buyer contact info is on the Order form as well as what the buyer sees is your contact information. It has been this way for many years.
theteamsetguy
OP1 month ago · Edited@mam98031 ,
I buy a lot on eBay and I’ve looked on the order form and don’t see any of the sellers phone numbers.
I know why they called but how did they get phone number?
mam98031
·1 month agoI see what you are saying. I don't see it on recent orders that I've done personally either. As a seller I see the buyer's phone number on the Order, but as a buyer I don't see the seller's phone number on the order. It did use to be there.
There is a way to contact Ebay to get contact info. I've never used it, but here is the link.
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/resolving-issues-sellers/contacting-seller?id=4021
For me, I put a Thank you/Business card in all my packages, so buyers can contact me if they are so inclined. However I've only had one buyer in the past year call me.
tools*
·1 month agoWhy sell to someone directly when you can pay an additional 15% in fees and have to deal with eBay's "buyer is always right" 180-day "return for any reason" guarantee.
theteamsetguy
OP1 month ago@tools* ,
I’m not afraid of returns. I offer free no questions asked returns on all of my sales here and any place that I sell. Most of the time when I get a return I just resell it. I get maybe a dozen returns in a year that I can resell.
I sell a lot on here and I don’t want to lose the ability to do that. All I need is for something to go south with an off eBay transaction and the buyer reports me to eBay. Not worth it for one sale.
tools*
·1 month agoIf someone calls you or sends an email after an eBay sale, you're free to conduct whatever business you want. It has nothing to do with eBay at that point and won't affect your eBay account.
tools*
·1 month agoeBay can't control what you do in the real world.
darn_yankee
·1 month agoIt's on the order details.
theteamsetguy
OP1 month agoI went to order details of one of my purchases and didn't find the sellers phone number. I can find it in order details for my buyers.
eoma689485
·1 month agoThe shipping label has your name and address on it - a quick google search may reveal your phone number - give it a try, and if it does appear, go to the site that has it, and there should be a way to have it removed.
theteamsetguy
OP1 month ago · Edited@eoma689485 ,
My label has my eBay user ID and address on it since I print my labels on Pirateship. Tried to do search with my eBay ID and address on Google and found nothing. Thanks your tip.
eoma689485
·1 month agoDo a deep dive, type in just the address and see if your name pops up - Just did mine and the voter records show my name.